Elective Affinity
by Pampermousse
Summary: Chloe finds herself in the middle of a deteriorating sitution between Clark and Lex. Chloe/Lex futurefic
1. Chapter 1

**Elective Affinity**

Elective Affinity: a tendency to unite with certain things

**Chapter 1 **

_Now _

Flashlights momentarily blind Chloe as she enters the Metropolis Museum of Fine Art. She looks back, seeking the object of their fascination. A gleaming statuesque blond exits a limousine. Chloe turns back forward and makes her way in.

The building is all hard edges and shining glass. Completely at odds with what is housed inside it. She tries to spot a familiar face, maybe a politician she once knew something about, a former colleague from the Planet. Maybe Lois. She reaches for a drink. Or Clark. She gulps it down.

_Earlier_

"Cover this for me Sullivan." Ed Jones had slapped the invitation down in her lap. She picked it up with the tips of her fingers and saw the words Metropolis. She dropped it back down.

"Find someone else" she said standing up and turning to exit

"No-one else wants it. It's yours" Ed had already moved onto something else.

"I don't want it. Get someone else" Chloe said, walking out.

"Who do you think you are? A star reporter?" She stopped at the sneer in his voice.

Sometimes she forgot who she now was.

_Now_

Fingering the sequins on her dress Chloe looks over to the bar. Tempting. Instead she watches the podium, waiting for the Mayor to speak. He is due to announce a new funding initiative for the arts – there is a reason no-one had wanted this job. Death by boredom is expected. She sees Senator Fay talking to a drug lawyer. In another life she would be interested. But here and now, she wants to stay unnoticed and leave as quietly as she came. Not difficult a voice inside her says, since nobody does actually notice you anymore. She sees the Mayor take to the podium. There is a polite ripple of applause and he starts speaking. He is just getting to the part about more museum visits for school children when a 6ft wide glittering green rock falls through the glass roof, sending transparent splinters flying across the room. A lifetime of escaping flying objects enables Chloe to move behind a pillar in the time it takes the collective gasp of the room to surface. She peers around, surveys the damage and then sees him, for the first time in 5 years. Clark, prostate on the floor.

_Earlier_

She was in her kitchen when she saw the Bat signal from her window. As a lowly business reporter, she didn't have to worry about why the shadowy signal was hovering outside her kitchen. She wondered who would cover it from her paper, Felicity, or maybe Richard. She missed it sometimes if she was honest, running headlong towards the story. She got it sometimes with what she covered now but it did not have the same intensity. What she did not miss was the all consuming fear that came with fighting against her nature.

She lad left Metropolis when Superman became the story. The biggest story of the century and she could not write about it. Her editors had been at first baffled, angry and then resigned to the peculiarity of it all. She had been shifted from the news beat to business where she had remained for a year. But even she had her limits. She had found it difficult to write about a company merger when across town Superman had saved a burning building from collapsing. That was the story. The rest was just words to cover the empty news space. She couldn't be in a city where she couldn't cover the story. She couldn't be in a city where she could only watch while others did. She had left to Gotham five years ago, and had been making her name as a tenacious business reporter when Batman appeared. Her history had a way of repeating itself.

_Now_

Before Chloe can move she sees Lois run over to Clark and try and help him up. They are lovers. The way Lois grabs him, not gently but with a firmness that comes from familiarity, she sees it.  
She feels something in her clench. The kryptonite lying in the middle of the room is so large she knows that Clark must be in a kind of agony that he has never known. He looks up and sees her instantly, his beautiful face contorted in pain and confusion. In the time it takes Lois to follow his gaze she is beside them. People are beginning to crowd the exits and still no-one has done anything about the big green rock in the centre of the room.

"Chloe, what are you doing here?" Lois asks

"I'm covering the Mayor's new arts programme" off her look, "yes, really"

"Let's catch up later, now we need to move Clark"

Lois looks back confused. "You know what is wrong with him?"

You don't Chloe realises in her mind. She slips into the familiar pattern of lying for Clark Kent.

"I just think it would be better to sort out whatever is wrong with him away from all this commotion"

Lois accepts this and they begin to move him. It's difficult moving a man of steel and it takes them 15 minutes to get him 50 meters to the doorway. Chloe moves back into the room and orders a policeman to move the rock. Something in the tone of her voice must work, because he does. She looks back and sees Clark slowly recovering. Her phone is ringing. Her editor. _Shit_.

_Earlier_

Being in every hidden inch of her body a reporter and yet being unable to report kills Chloe. When Clark decided he wanted to be Superman he talked it over with her. There was no answer she could give that wasn't a yes. She knew that he would become the most talked about thing on the planet, had warned him about it, and also that he would become the one thing she could never write about. Already there, she saw the warning signs.

Her career inversely followed Clark's rise as Superman. The more comfortable he became roaming the skies, the further her career sunk down the toilet. It was a price she was willing to pay. Some days she thought it served her right. She had so desperately wanted to know his secret and now she did, it was ruining her.

When Lois got the job at the Daily Planet and started to write about Superman, she knew it was time to leave. To see her life being played out by her beloved cousin was too much. She wanted to continue to love Lois, which was impossible being so near and feeling so bitter.

She did not return to Metropolis. She couldn't see Clark without resenting him and she did not want that. So she wrote her business exposés, avoided Batman and pretended that this was the life she had wanted. It didn't really matter. It was the life she had got.

_Now_

"Hello Ed" she says into her phone

"Chloe, please tell me you were there. Write something about this."

"There's not much to write, someone dropped a rock into the building"

"Then find out who dropped the rock, what kind of rock it is. Anything! Find out if it has anything to do with Superman"

Chloe's blood freezes.

"Why would it have anything to do with Superman?"

"I don't know – it's his town. Find out. I want something by midnight."

He hangs up and Chloe felt her head pumping.

The rock is now removed, having been dragged outside and she sees Clark walking up to her.

"Chloe, it's so great to see you"

"Clark, what happened?"

Clark looks at her and then looks away to one side. His jaw clenching.

"Lex" he answers.

_Later_

Her phone rings, and she sees its Ed. She ignores it and continues working. Her hotel phone rings, she picks it up,

"Its midnight and I have nothing" she hears Ed's voice.

"I'm working on it"

"Work harder"

"I think Lex Luthor has something to do with what happened today"

"Juicy. Look into it. We can spare you for a couple of weeks. Try and get an interview with him."

"Are you sure? Who will cover me at the paper?"

"Chloe. This is it. I'm giving you a chance at a headline story. Be eternally grateful."

He hangs up before Chloe can respond that a headline story involving Superman, Lex Luthor and Kryptonite is the stuff of her nightmares.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

_Now_

When it comes to Clark, Lex knows he has a blind spot. This does not make him any less blind but it makes him aware of his weakness. Where he is usually ruled by logic and reason, with Clark his emotions take over. He had ordered the drop of kryptonite yesterday to prove a theory. Rationally, he knows there were ways to do this that did not involve smashing the glass ceiling of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, but when it comes to it, he wants to do something extravagant, wild and shocking.

He wants to punish him.

_Earlier_

It had taken him 3 years to discover the effect of kryptonite on Superman and then another 3 years to locate a supply. Where other people had the gym, rock climbing or just plain old stamp collecting to distract them from the daily grind, he had this. Punishing Superman.

A year ago Clark had floated down onto his balcony in the ridiculous costume. Standing there, legs astride, arms crossed.

"Clark, take a seat" Lex had motioned to the deck chair

"I'm not staying"

"So it's just a flying visit then?"

"Stop it"

"Sorry, that was a bad pun"

"Stop the digging. Stop looking for it. You won't find anything"

"I have no idea what you're talking about… _Superman_"

"Do you hate me that much?"

No. Hate wasn't the word.

_Now_

His phone rings. He presses the speaker button

"Mr Luthor you have a call from a reporter from the Gotham Daily News"

"Why are you bothering me with this? I pay you to keep reporters away"

"She was insistent"

"What's her name?" Lex leans forward, curious.

"Chloe Sullivan"

"I'll take it"

_Earlier_

The merger with Metro Investments last year had made him the most powerful man in Metropolis. He had stopped counting money years ago, there comes a point where you have enough. But power. You can never have enough of that. But with all the power in the world, he still couldn't fly. Superman always remained just out of reach.

_Now_

"Chloe, what a surprise. It's been a while"

"Not long enough" her voice is harder than he remembers.

"Still as charming as ever"

"I wanted to request a face to face interview. You probably know that I now cover business…"

"I didn't" he interrupts. It is cruel, of course he knows but he wants her to feel unimportant.

"Right." He can hear the pause and he knows he has hit his target. " Of course not. Well, my editor wants me to take a look at the business community in Metropolis, do a comparative piece with Gotham."

He doesn't believe a word of it, "How does tomorrow late afternoon sound, around 6?"

"I'll be there"

She hangs up before he can respond, not many people would dare. He smiles.

_Later_

In his study he looks at the clippings his secretary has prepared. Chloe's writing style has changed; it's more muted, mature. He can see that she has had some scoops in Gotham, a few deals that he was sure were meant to stay hidden. He wonders what she is doing back in Metropolis. Wonders whether all roads lead back to Clark for both of them.

He looks up and sees a whirl of red and blue in the distance, mingled with his reflection in the window.

He moves her clippings to one side and studies the prints on his desk. Everything seems to be theoretically in order. This means nothing of course, in theory so many things look good; A life without distractions, Most powerful man in the world, A man who can fly. In practice, they all fall a bit short of the glory. But this, a weapon that can defeat and protect them from Superman, this has to work in practice.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Now_

Chloe stands outside LexCorp and looks up. Glass windows as far as the eye can see. She dodges people leaving the office and makes her way inside. After more security than her flight to Metropolis, she stands in the elevator and presses the top floor. She walks down the long corridor on the top floor and remembers the last time she was here. She speeds up and tries to forget.

_Earlier_

After Chloe had hung up on Lex she had walked downtown to Clark's apartment. It was in a non descript building which was obviously not lived in much. Clark had greeted her with a hard hug and Chloe had almost lost herself. Almost.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to be in town?"

"I wasn't planning on staying long." She saw his look

"But Chloe, I haven't seen you in five years!"

"You do know why don't you?" he had looked away. Clark always hated being confronted with inconvenient truths.

"It got difficult for me there for a bit. Not being able to write about Superman."

She could see that he understood. His cheeks had flushed and he had looked miserable. Poor Clark.

"Tell me about what happened. You say it's Lex."

Clark had looked up, eyes full of pain. She had never understood what was there between Clark and Lex, and the intensity of his eyes made her uncomfortable.

"He's trying to kill me"

"Have you talked to him?"

"I've tried. He isn't reasonable anymore. After he found out he came to me. He asked me to join him, to work with him." Clark was pacing.

"I couldn't trust him. I can't really trust anyone. He took it badly"

"I'm meeting with him tomorrow." Clark looks at her troubled.

"My editor wants me to write about what happened at the museum." She looks away from him, "I could try and make the story go nowhere but even elementary research leads to Lex"

"What will you write?"

"I was thinking about the truth"

She looks at Clark and he looks like he both fears and welcomes the answer. She smiles at him. He walks back over to her and hugs her, "I trust you Chloe."

She closes her eyes and remembers simpler times.

_Now _

The door to Lex's office is open. She sees him standing by the window talking on the phone, his back is to her. She slips in and takes a seat on the tan couch. It's as comfortable as she remembers.

He sees her through the reflection in the glass and turns around, placing his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone,

"Entering without an invite?"

"Why change a habit of a lifetime?"

He lowers his voice and finishes the call. He comes to where she is sitting and takes a seat next to her on the couch. She moves her body to face him.

"It's been a while."

"Yes, it has. How is Gotham treating you?

"Oh, you know Gotham. Its…gloomy. I like it."

"So, are you here to talk about Superman?"

_Earlier_

Lois had been sick, one of the rare occasions, and Perry had asked her to write something about Superman's latest adventure, and he had told her that there was a close up picture. She had managed to get the picture before anyone could have a close look at it. Taking into account the city's collective blind spot when it came to Superman and Clark Kent, no-one would have mistaken this. Superman was kneeling on the ground, seemingly catching a breath but Chloe could see he was using his x-ray vision on an object to the left. His hair was disheveled from the fire he had been fighting, his cheeks were a little red, and his eyes were a little haunted. He looked human. He looked like Clark Kent. Chloe had made the photograph disappear and written a bland piece about the hero saving the day. She had left work early, gone to the closest bar and drunk so many vodka martinis that by 8pm, she couldn't remember where she lived.

The next day she had put her apartment up for sale and quit her job. But in the twilight hours in between, she had been reckless and lived like she wasn't the person she was.

_Now_

"I was going to set a scene, build up to my real reason for being here" Chloe replies, "Do you have to be so crude and go for the jugular?" She says it lightly and it covers up how tense she feels. He is sitting very close and the years have only added to his aura of menace. The last time it was not so pronounced. She knows enough to know that lines have been crossed and that the man sitting beside her now is not the same man she once knew. She needs to remember that

"Why else would you be back in town? All roads lead to Clark don't they?"

"You should know" two can play this game she thinks

He gets up now and walks to his desk. "Clark and the delightful Lois Lane form quite the pair don't they?"

"I wouldn't know"

She knows he is trying to unnerve her, but she has stopped caring for Clark in that way for quite a while. There is no need for him to know this though, she prefers he takes shots at her weaknesses that no longer exist than at the weaknesses that do.

"Lois Lane. Lana Lang. Maybe you should change your name Chloe. You may stand a better chance"

"Maybe I should Lex Luthor."

He smiles at her. She wonders how long they can keep talking about nothing and everything at the same time.

"I did come here for an interview. Not the one I spoke about on the phone I admit. Willing to answer a few questions? For old times sake?"

"Why not? I love trips down memory lane"

Chloe looks up. He is leaning against the desk now, arms crossed. She wonders how it is possible for someone to look so confident. She leans back in the couch, flicks her hair and says casually

"Why did you drop a rock of kryptonite into the Metropolis Museum of Fine Art two days ago?"

He looks at her, like he is appreciating a good story that never gets old.

"What's kryptonite?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_Earlier_

Lex had always known there was something about those meteor rocks. It had taken a couple of years for his best people to tell him that these meteor rocks were unlike any meteor rock they had previously seen. He had then taken over. He had enjoyed the simplicity of research, of experimentation. It had been a long time since he had done any hands-on research but he had the feeling that this was something that no-one, however well paid, would have discovered but him. By this time he knew that Clark was Superman, he had known it the first time he had seen him in that ridiculous costume. And Clark, finally, had the decency to accept this knowledge and never protested when Lex called him Clark to his face whilst he was dressed as Superman. Lex had found it ironic that their relationship was more honest now than at any other time, and it had happened at the point where they did not have a relationship to speak of.

When he had all the knowledge he needed about Kryptonite, Lex had decided to bargain with Clark. He had called him to the penthouse and he had offered to never use the green rock if Superman promised to leave him and business alone, and if Clark promised to stop digging at the Planet. He had thought it was a fair deal. Evidently Clark hadn't. He had tried unsuccessfully three more times; he always had been a hopeless optimist when it came to Clark. At the last attempt, Clark had been particularly insufferable in his refusal to consider what Lex was offering him. The next day he had ordered the drop of 5o kilos of pure untainted kryptonite through the glass ceiling of the Metropolis Museum of Fine Art.

_Now_

Lex looks at Chloe, waiting for her answer. She rolls her eyes and he suppresses a smile.

"Ok, let me rephrase it another way. Why are you trying to kill Superman?"

Lex is surprised at her boldness; he is not ready to have an open conversation about this. Yet.

"Why would I need to bother myself with Superman? I am the richest man on the planet, bar a few oil sheikhs. I have total power over the city I live in. I just dial a number and I can change anything I want in Metropolis."

"Wow, can I have your autograph?" He breaks off at Chloe' interruption.

"You can't stop people flying can you?"

"Can't I?"

Chloe looks at him. She seems unmoved by his cryptic admittance of what happened the previous night.

"I know you dropped the kryptonite Lex. You want it to be known. It wasn't subtle. What interests me is for you to waste what was it? Approximately 40 kilos of kryptonite on making a point must mean that you have a hell of a lot more of it."

Lex thinks that he doesn't need Chloe getting in the middle of his business with Superman. He isn't sure of her motivations.

"Clark's a big boy Chloe." He pauses. "He can take care of himself. We're not in Smallville anymore" She doesn't even blink at his use of the name Clark.

He watches her slowly get up, appreciates her cool calmness, and thinks it looks good on her. She is in front of him now.

"No, we're not Lex. I've moved on, Clark's moved on, but here you are. Still trying to get one up on Clark. I thought you would have grown up by now."

She delivers this looking directly into his eyes. It almost cuts a little too close to the bone, but he has layers upon layers of protection over his weaknesses, and he has made sure that no-one can touch them.

"Interesting observation coming from you" he says "your definition of moving on is sacrificing

your dreams so that Clark's secrets remain safe. I'll take my failure to grow up over that any day."

He hopes he has hurt her, she knows too much about him and it makes him uncomfortable. He can see that she is leaving. She does not look particularly upset and if he had to guess he would say she seems tired.

"You won't win Lex. Why torture yourself?"

He is left alone and thoughts unbidden return to him. Of the night so many things started and so many things ended.

_Earlier_

Lex had meticulously built his reputation up again, after the battering the Luthor name had gotten from his father and then from his less than legal dealings. It would be untrue to say he had cleaned up; rather he had become better at not being caught and diverting people's attention. He had made hundreds of charitable donations, had built buildings for no other reason but charity, and had started five different foundations. It wasn't gratitude or applause that he wanted with these ventures. He wanted indifference to his business dealings. He wanted the same detached boredom afforded to every other businessman in the city. He had managed to get Philanthropist of the Year, when Clark had run an exposé on a testing plant of his in Texas. He had framed the headline, "Immoral Exploitation" as if there were another kind. Clark or rather Superman had done his homework. Lex was forced to shut down the facility, deny all knowledge and reacquaint himself with that recently removed stain on his character. Lex had hoped that Clark had got it out of his system but every couple of months there was something new.

One day, in the spring, he had got information that one of his employees was going to speak out about the human testing he was doing on meteor survivors. Lex liked to think that if he hadn't already been battered with a barrage of Lex Luthor is Evil stories from the Daily Planet he would have handled it differently. In the event, he had ordered the killing of an innocent man.

_Later_

He is reading over the blueprints of the weapon again at the penthouse. He can spot no faults but he would like to be able to give them to someone else to look at. As this is an impossibility he will have to keep looking at them until he spots something, or is satisfied there is nothing to spot. His private line rings.

"I had one last question." Lex closes his eyes, listens to the familiar voice

"Why have you never said anything to anyone? All these years you've known who he is. You could destroy him." Chloe seems genuinely curious.

"I like knowing something others don't"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_Now_

Chloe sees a sliver of light from under the blanket and buries her head back down again. She can feel the blood in her head thumping, the payback for raiding the mini bar last night.

She thinks of calling Clark and telling him about her meeting with Lex before realizing there would be nothing to tell. Lex had played dumb with an ease that had chilled her. She hears her hotel phone ring and releases an arm to answer it.

"Chloe. I'm waiting."

Chloe closes her eyes at her editor's voice

"I'm still working on it. It might take some time. Luthor doesn't want to play."

"What have you got so far?"

"Nothing." She grimaces in anticipation of his reaction as she says this.

A pause.

"Nothing nothing or something nothing?"

"Something nothing" Chloe replies with a smile.

Ed mumbles in what she hopes is acceptance,

"Here's something interesting for you Sullivan. Batman is missing in action. Hasn't been spotted for a couple of days and there have been a few cats up trees that have just had to stay there."

"Maybe he's taking a holiday? Or taking a much needed visit to a therapist?"

Ed laughs and rings off.

Chloe is now upright in bed and looks down at the phone. She dials Clark's number.

_Earlier _

Chloe, like many ladies of a certain age and appearance, had spent a few nights entwined with Bruce Wayne. She had had the dinner invitation, expensively embossed, the fine dining experience at a private restaurant and the requisite sweeping of her feet back at the Manor. Although _her_ feet had not left the ground as she suspected others had. It took a lot nowadays for that to happen. It had been a nice distraction, and truth be told, she had been flattered by the attention even whilst knowing it was given out indiscriminately to others. Bruce Wayne was entertaining company but there was something about the man that she could not reach. She had been the one to put an end to their periodic meetings. It was going nowhere which suited her, but there was enough about him that in a low vulnerable moment she could feel that it might go somewhere. She didn't want to get silly about what they had or rather didn't have so she had decided it best not to see him. There had not been any other men in her five years away from Metropolis. She became worried that she would never be able to date an ordinary man and wondered whether her choice would always be between alien and billionaire.

_Now_

Chloe hangs up the phone after speaking to Lois. Clark is missing in action. She furrows her brow and thinks that Batman and Superman taking a break from saving the world doesn't feel right.

She showers and dresses casually in jeans and a loose sweater. She picks up her cellphone and sees she has a missed call. She re-dials and lets out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding when Clark answers.

"I was worried. I thought that you and Batman had decided to have a Superhero strike"

Clark gives a half laugh and is quiet

"There was a meeting."

"You guys have meetings?!"

"Kind of." is all Clark offers

"Who takes the minutes?"

"Oliver. He has the best handwriting" Clark says in all seriousness and Chloe suddenly misses him. Misses who they once were.

"Is everything ok Clark?"

"No, I don't think it is" and she has never heard Clark sound like this, so sad and lost.

"Lex is building a weapon that can destroy me"

She had realized some time after leaving Smallville that the biggest competition she had when it came to Clark had been Lex. She had seen Clark unwilling to believe the worst about Lex and it hadn't just been because of his kind nature. It was as if he saw from the beginning that their destinies were intertwined, and if Lex could rein in his dark side, Clark would not have have to fly so close to the fire. And that if Lex gave into the darkness inside of him, Clark would also need to become a darker shade of white to fight him. She knows how much this new knowledge must wound Clark, in more ways than one.

"I'm sorry" she says because she doesn't know what else to say.

"Shall I talk to him?" she adds, almost out of politeness

"Do you think it will work?"

"No" she answers truthfully and she hears Clark sigh quietly

"You can try" and he softly hangs up.

_Earlier_

The night of the vodka martinis, as she remembers it in her head, or the night before the rest of her life, she had found herself standing on the interstate bridge, looking over the Metropolis skyline. She had made her decision then to leave the Planet and she was saying a sorrowful goodbye to the city she loved. She had had a dozen missed calls from Clark to thank her no doubt for keeping his face out of the papers, but she couldn't take them that night. Instead she stood alone, the alcohol liquefying her brain, blunting her judgment and dulling the pain. She breathed in the warm air and felt the sporadic breeze from the cars that passed behind her.

She had seen a movement out of the corner of her eye, and in a part of her brain had registered that someone had dropped something into the river. She turned fully and saw Lex, slipping a gloved hand back into his pocket. She could not process what she had seen, only that it was out of place. She saw him turn and see her, and then a small movement as he recognized her. He had walked slowly and deliberately up to her and if she was someone else she would have been scared. Instead she had accepted the offer of a ride back into the city.

Her memory fails her then and the next thing she remembers is being in the penthouse and Lex mixing her a drink.

"Are you trying to get me comatose?"

"It's a Bloody Mary. Plus, you're no use to me comatose" he had smiled a little when he had said this.

"So, what were you doing on the bridge Lex? It looked interesting."

"What did you see?"

"The correct answer is nothing isn't it?

"Yes" he had said seriously and walked up to her and handed her the drink.

She had taken a big gulp to distract herself from the tone he had used

He raised his glass, and she realized he wanted to toast. He looked at her carefully

"Old habits" he began

"Die hard" She had finished and drained the glass, catching his expression as she put the glass down, seeing something resigned in his eyes.

_Later_

Chloe sits in her room, with only the light of her computer. She reads over LexCorp's activities in recent years. She sees that Clark has succeeded her as the thorn in Lex's side. She reads more thoroughly than she did in Gotham about the information on human testing and thinks back to that toast, 5 years ago. She shivers.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6  
**

_Now_

It is the second time in two days that Lex is looking at Chloe Sullivan sitting in his office. She is dressed casually, in jeans and a sweater. No makeup either. She looks about 19. Lex is disarmed.

"Clark is worried about you"

"I'm touched" and really, he is. It's been some time since he's been on the receiving end of concern from Clark.

"He thinks you might be doing something you don't really want to be doing."

Chloe is speaking slowly and clearly. Her eyes are very serious and very big. He can see that she is trying to be patient.

"And what would that be?"

Chloe gives him a look. Lex wonders whether it could possibly be the weapon. He is sure it isn't, he has been very careful to hide all evidence. It must still be the kryptonite drop.

"Playing with dangerous toys"

"Well Clark can't have all the good ones. He needs to learn how to share" He hears a snort of derision come from Chloe.

"So when did you branch out into weapons of mass destruction?"

Lex cannot hide his surprise and he knows Chloe has seen it. He turns away from her and walks to the drink cabinet. Maybe Clark has sharpened up in his old age or maybe he is getting help from elsewhere. He wonders how much Clark knows about the weapon. It must be his computer system. As soon as Chloe is out of here he will order a new one.

"That expression has lost a bit of its potency don't you think?" he replies conversationally, "with its misuse of late"

"I think in this instance, it´s pretty on target."

He finishes mixing the drinks and walks back to face Chloe, thinking it's time for someone else in this room to feel a bit of discomfort.

"Bloody Mary?"

_Earlier_

There have been so many defining moments in his life, he's forgotten most of them. He remembers however a night 5 years ago. It was the first time he killed someone not in self defense. The someone wasn't innocent, in fact he was very guilty. He was a goon that had been hired by one of Lex's business rivals to knock some sense into him. He did not have to kill him, there were numerous other ways he could have dealt with the man, but he had chosen to end his life. Lex had not reflected on the rights and wrongs of killing him, he was a criminal after all, but rather, the way he had come to his decision. He had crossed a line that night, and then earlier this year, another one, when he had moved from killing the guilty to killing the innocent.

He had gone to the overstate bridge and disposed of the weapon. He had seen someone there but she had looked like a local drunk so he had not taken any notice. When he turned to move back into his car he had recognized Chloe. It had been one of the few occasions in his life that he had felt real panic. He remembered looking more closely and seeing that his initial assessment of a local drunk had not been completely inaccurate. She was two sheets to the wind. He could not take any chances though and had offered her a ride.

He remembers knowing that she had not seen anything of crucial importance when they were back at the penthouse. Her curiosity would have got the better of her then, not now though. Now she was different. He could see that she had developed the virtue of patience, and it made her even more formidable.

_Now_

Chloe is looking at him with amusement. "It's a little early for me"

"What about a vodka martini?"

"Nice, Lex" she looks away and Lex knows she is not unaffected. She gets up and moves around him to the window.

"Your memory is pretty good"

"I remember the important things"

She turns and looks at him, "So do I" and Lex is not sure but it could be a threat.

"You can't protect Clark forever"

"What makes you think I'm trying to protect Clark?" she walks to him with a slow ease.

"There's no need to trouble yourself with my moral fiber, I'm afraid it's a lost cause"

"Do you have a death wish Lex? Because you cannot win this one, and you are putting Clark into a situation where he will have to kill you"

"Tell Clark that if he wants to threaten me, he should come here himself." He moves away from her and leans on his desk.

"That night, 5 years ago, it was important wasn't it? Something happened." Lex is thrown by her abrupt change of subject.

"Well I know we got a little intimate there Chloe but I wouldn't classify it as important" He can see that Chloe is not buying it and he again thinks he does not need Chloe here, now, getting in the middle of things.

"That wasn't exactly the highlight of my night either so we're even. I was thinking of something else, but you know that. You're just being obtuse.

Lex has had enough. He doesn't have time for this and he wants her to leave.

"Give my regards to Bruce when you get back to Gotham." He is moving towards the door. He continues speaking, just to be cruel. "Tell me, does he wear that mask in bed as well?"

He looks back and sees Chloe's look of shock. Finally. He has ruffled her and it is not nearly as satisfying as he thought it would be.

"You didn't know? Another secret for you to keep. I hope this doesn't make your job harder in Gotham?" And he sees her eyes light up with anger, and he is pleased and ashamed at the same time.

_Earlier_

Apparently honesty was a real turn on for Lex. They had sat outside on the balcony and for a few minutes he had allowed himself to relax, convinced as he had been that she had not seen anything on the bridge. He had asked her, not expecting an answer on why she was so intoxicated. She had proceeded to give him a breathtaking monologue of brutal honesty on her job, life and Clark. He couldn't quite believe she trusted him with this information, information on her weaknesses, on her vulnerabilities. He had looked at her, really looked at her and found another reason to be jealous of Clark Kent.

_Later_

It doesn't happen often, but Lex had unleashed his fury on the head of his IT department when Chloe had left. He had demanded a new system up and running in a week. The staff would tip toe around him a little more this month. He sits now in the penthouse, looking out of the window, stroking his glass of scotch. Things are changing around him. There are variables he cannot control, Chloe being the biggest and most recent one. It seems that every time he comes close to completing the weapon something happens. He allows himself a sigh, here in the privacy of his home. His eyes close and images flit behind his closed lids, crashing into Clark on the bridge, Clark hanging, chained to the cross, Superman looking at him in disappointment, headlines in bold from the Daily Planet, Chloe falling off his balcony. And Clark catching her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_Now_

Chloe is sitting on Clark's blue couch. It looks like it has been sat on a total of 10 times and Chloe wonders how much time Clark spends over at Lois'.

"He wasn't open to persuasion" she says, looking at Clark leaning against the breakfast bar. She admires the view – in the 5 years she has forgotten how stunning he is.

"Did you find anything out?"

"Well, I understand Bruce Wayne a little better now"

Clark's eyes open wide "Lex knows that?"

"Apparently so. And he was happy to share"

"How did that come up?" Clark looks confused

Chloe does not feel like broadening the circle of people that know about her close encounters with Bruce Wayne and just shrugs. Clark seems happy to leave it. He looks away from her, out of the window

"I thought you might be able to get through to him"

Chloe is surprised, "Why on earth did you think I could get through to him?"

Clark looks quickly back to her and then away before he speaks, "I don't know – I thought you guys were close once"

This is as close as Clark has come to voicing the suspicions Chloe always knew he harbored about that night 5 years ago.

Chloe doesn't say anything, instead she asks him what his plan is and he tells her that the Justice League is working on it.

"Are you worried Clark?" she asks him, getting up and coming to him

"Only that I won't be able to do something that I've always feared I would have to do" Clark says with a mixture of sorrow and determination that moves Chloe to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight, trying to remember when life and death equations were not so much a part of her life.

_Earlier_

There was something about Lex that made her want to impress him. Every conversation with him felt like a test. A test to keep him from getting bored. She felt the need to be that more interesting, intelligent and wise than she normally would with others. So when Lex had asked her why she was drunk, Chloe in her state knew she could not impress him with superior intelligence so instead had chosen to silence him with brutal honesty. It had worked, Lex had been speechless but she could still remember the look he had given her, like he was seeing her for the first time. Not as Clark's friend, or Lana's friend but as Chloe.

Then it had all gotten crazy. She just remembers disjointed moments. Suddenly she was on her feet and laughing, mildly hysterical and Lex was just watching her. She had asked him whether he had thought she was pathetic and he had just shaken his head silently, watching her. She then remembers him coming to her and she was sitting on the railing of his balcony, balancing with the fearless poise of a drunk. She remembered his next words clearly though

"You will always be waiting for him"

She had been angry that he presumed to lecture her on this, that he had started talking about her heart and mostly that he was right. She had sat further back so that her backside was nearly all off the railing, and she had been so very very drunk because that is the only explanation she can give herself. She had said "You don't think he would save me?"

And Chloe had leant backwards, meaning to feign a stumble and then jump back onto the balcony but her poise was illusory, and the vodka martinis had their revenge. She had fallen and then images came quickly in her memory. Lex wide-eyed leaning over the railing, the blurred lights of Metropolis and then arms carrying her. She had been saved, except looking back, it didn't make anything better. Clark was flying with her and she had felt nauseous with the movement.

She had heard fire alarms in the distance and Clark had told her he had to go and he had flown down to the nearest sidewalk which happened to be outside LexCorp. He had looked at her concerned and Chloe didn't have the energy to muster a fake smile and instead looked away, suddenly stone cold sober.

_Now_

She receives a bouquet of flowers to her hotel room. She reads the card and it is Lex apologizing and asking her to please meet her at Lexcorp the next day. She throws the flowers in the bin and fingers the card.

_Earlier_

She had walked into LexCorp and waited in the neon lit lobby. It was midnight and there was just her and the security guard. She didn't have a death wish. It had been an accident – she was not that depressed – was she? She needed to get out of this town. She didn't like herself anymore. She didn't recognize herself anymore.

She heard the automatic doors softly open and she saw Lex standing there.

"Come up to the office"

She had not moved. Lex had moved closer

"Chloe. You're not in a good place."

"What LexCorp? You're right. It's not a good place"

"I can help you."

"I'm not open to manipulation right now"

But she had followed him up all the same.

_Now_

Clark calls her and tells her that he cannot meet her tomorrow – a source has given him a tip off about a story he and Lois are chasing. She tells him she can come with him, but he says no, he has to go alone. Chloe asks whether Lois is not coming and Clark replies again no, that the deal is that he turns up alone. She asks whether this is normal and he says, no, not really as if it is just occurring to him. Chloe hangs up and wonders if it really could be.

_Later_

She sits in her room and tries to stay away from the minibar. It's proving difficult. She needs a clear head for tomorrow though. She picks up the phone and dials the number,

"I got your card, very considerate. I wanted to push the time back though – can we meet a little earlier or later?"

"I'm sorry but I'm busy all day, that's the only time I have. I'll make it worth your while Chloe, you'll have a headline story"

"Promises promises" she says lightly but her heart's not in it.

"How did you like the flowers" he says before she can hang up

"I'm looking at them now" she says glancing over to the tangle of yellow and green sticking out of the trash. "I'm more of a chocolate girl. For future reference."

"I'll remember" Lex says and hangs up.

Chloe holds the old fashioned hotel phone against her chest, enjoying the feeling of holding something solid, real and tries to dismiss the cold dread that is seeping through her.

She dials Clark's number.

"We need to talk"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_Now_

Lex watches the coverage of the explosion at the nuclear plant off the coast. The news anchors are telling people to be calm, that although it is potentially catastrophic, it is under control, and that of all the nuclear plants that could have exploded this is the best one in terms of safety. Lex commends himself on a job well done. He knows the entire justice league must be there, its big enough to warrant that.

Almost all of them.

He thinks of Clark, writhing on the floor in the small room that has been specially prepared. Or maybe he has stopped writhing and is now just laying there. Lex forces himself to ignore the restriction in his chest that accompanies that thought. This is the plan. This is what he wants.

He pours another drink and waits for Chloe.

_Earlier_

Lex had walked Chloe to the couch in his office and watched her sit, lean back and close her eyes. He was not certain what had caused her to enter LexCorp but he was not going to question it now. A few years back, Lex had got his own surveillance of Superman, a clever associate of his had found a way to trace Superman's movements through heat sensors. So when Superman had swooped down and carried Chloe away from Lex's balcony, he had made a couple of calls and found out that Superman had deposited her in front of LexCorp. He had been in the process of making more calls to find out where Chloe had gone when his security had called him telling him that she was sitting in the office lobby.

"It wasn't a suicide attempt you know" he remembers her saying, still with her eyes closed, so she could not see him frown in surprise. He had never assumed it was. God knows in his debauched youth there had been more than a few nights after a bottle or so of vodka that he would find himself falling off various ledges, admittedly not the 35th floor of a high rise complex but the basics were the same. It was interesting that Chloe felt she had to clarify this to him though. It made him wonder at her state of mind even more.

"Of course not" was all he had said, leaving it open enough for Chloe to unburden herself should she wish, but she was too clever for that, even in her state.

"I should leave" she got up and smoothed her trousers.

"You should stay" Lex had said, not meaning it to sound as quite as much of a threat as it did. Actually he hadn't meant to say it at all, but there had been something about Chloe, standing there, still defiant and strong after the events of the evening. It had drawn him in.

"Is that a threat?" she had raised her eyebrows

"No, it's a request. Not everything I say is rooted in evil you know"

"Hmm. Well, can I wash my face? You must have a wash basin somewhere in this office. In fact, I'm sure you have all manner of things hidden away"

"It's behind you"

He had watched Chloe retreating to the back of the room and wondered what he was doing. Punishing Superman came a voice unbidden. No. Not then. Then he was punishing Clark.

_Now_

He watches Chloe enter the lobby through the surveillance camera feed he has on his computer. She is dressed in a black trouser suit, flatteringly cut and a white shirt open at the neck. She looks professional. He catches her looking at the TV screens in the lobby, watching the running news about the power plant. His hand is already on the telephone when his secretary buzzes him.

"Send her in"

_Earlier_

She had come back to the room with her face scrubbed clean, and her hair tied back. She had walked right up to him, with only a slight hesitation and asked what his game was. He had said he was going with honesty, it seemed that policy was making an interesting evening for them both.

She had walked away from him and gone to the window.

"I feel like my life is out of my control, like I am doing these things and I have no idea why" She stopped and Lex was aware that his presence wasn't really needed here as she was looking out of the window, down at the lights of Metropolis and speaking as if she was the only one in the room.

"It sounds like you need a new direction, or something to shake you out of whatever you are going through"

She had turned around at that and had seemed to be evaluating just how much more she should share. She continued softly, so that he had to strain to hear,

"I read somewhere that you have to reach rock bottom before you face an addiction or destructive behavior"

Lex thought that rock bottom was highly subjective but only said "Are you there yet?"

"No. But I think it could give me a good excuse for what I'm about to do"

She had taken even steps towards him and stopped when their bodies were touching. Her breasts grazing against his shirt. She was looking straight ahead at the top of his shirt and Lex had to use not an inconsiderable amount of self control to say levelly,

"What are you doing?"

"Hitting rock bottom." And she had snaked her arms around him and pulled him down to her.

_Now_

Chloe walks in and sits on the couch. Lex remains where he is behind the desk.

"Chloe. Thanks for coming. I thought I should make up for my rudeness to you the other day."

"Well, apparently you can teach an old dog new tricks"

Lex smiles, and it is almost genuine, " You can ask me anything you want"

"I can always do that. The question is, will you answer truthfully?"

"More than I have before"

He offers her a glass of water and notices the barely imperceptible shake when she takes it. He frowns and wonders what has got her so tightly wound.

"Can we turn the TV on? I want to keep informed about the explosion at the nuclear plant."

She looks at him like she doesn't believe a word of it but only says "I'm sure you do."

He settles down on a chair that is facing the couch she is sitting on. "Have you seen Clark?"

She grips the glass tightly and whips her head up, "Don't Lex. Just don't"

And Lex feels something close to foreboding. The hairs on his back are standing up and something is not right. He sees Chloe looking at her cellphone and she gives a tight smile.

"I have no coverage. You've thought of everything"

And Lex tries to stay calm which is proving difficult because he should know better than to underestimate Chloe. To underestimate her intelligence, her resourcefulness, her knowledge of him and most importantly, her continued devotion to Clark Kent.

There is a discreet knock at the door and his secretary peers round the door, "There is Clark Kent here to see you" and Lex feels the blood rushing in his ears and he is sick with fury but more than that, he is relieved and it makes him even angrier.

He looks up at Chloe, "Whatever you think you know, you don't"

"I don't _think_ anything. I _know_ that you planned the nuclear explosion to distract the Justice League and I _know_ that you rigged up a 20 sq ft room with enough kryptonite to kill a small village and to fatally injure Superman, and I also _know_ that you wanted me here, where Clark couldn't reach me and I couldn't help him." She stops and waits.

"I know you have crossed lines Lex. Five years ago you crossed a line, I'm not sure what it was but it was something. But this, this is where it ends."

_Earlier_

He was surprised by the strength of his reaction to Chloe. He had lifted her and brought her to the couch and they had continued to kiss, long and hard. He remembers her taking off her jacket, her pants and lifting her shirt off in a series of fluid movements,

"I'm impressed. Had a lot of practice?"

But she had shut him up with another kiss and then there was no more talking until he entered her and she had just whispered "Shit" in a kind of reverence.

When it was over they had lain there, Chloe resting her head on his chest and it had felt surprisingly good. They had been silent and after a while she had got up and dressed quietly and Lex had just watched her.

"Well, this has been eventful" she said with an ironic smile

"Indeed" he had replied and couldn't stop the smile of his own

"I'm leaving Metropolis tomorrow."

"Was it that bad?" Lex asks

"Ha ha. No, it was good. Really good. But if I needed any more proof that I have changed beyond all recognition then this was it."

Lex was relieved, he had sensed that things could get complicated and he didn't need that. Chloe knew him too well and no good could come of that.

"I'm going to Gotham. Grey, moody, boring and no superheroes. If you're ever in town.." she left the rest of it unsaid and Lex nodded but didn't reply and they both knew that it was just politeness.

Before she had left she had taken one last look at him and smiled.

_Now_

They are interrupted by Clark who enters and cannot bring himself to look at Lex which is good because Lex cannot look at him either.

"Clark, I'll be out in a minute" Chloe says and unbelievably he accepts this and exits.

"Is anything you do real anymore Lex?"

"I'm happy Clark is ok" which is strangely enough the truth. "I do what I do for reasons you may not understand or be happy with" he sees Chloe widen her eyes in disbelief at this, "but for me they are legitimate."

But she is already up and making her way around the oversized coffee table that separates them, and he stands up and tries to touch her sleeve but misses and instead runs his hand over his head, and chokes out, as it expelling a foreign object, "Five years ago. Here. That was real."

And it slows her without stopping her and he tries again, suddenly realizing that he does not want things to end this way with them,

"Chloe, I'm in Gotham next month on business"

"Don't look me up" she says before he can finish and then she is gone.

_Later_

Chloe sits in her Gotham apartment a week after the showdown in Lex's office. She still hasn't quite processed it. She believed Lex when he said that he was happy that Clark was ok and she also believed that he had genuinely tried to kill him. She thinks that the love hate relationship Lex and Clark have is still weighing down on the side of love. Just.

She wonders whether Lex has now crossed every line and if there is just a blank empty space in front of him. She wonders whether she can ever see him again the same way or if that man she knew is gone forever.

She thinks that she does not want to hear the word Superman ever again. That maybe, just maybe there had been some choice to her actions those years ago. She had also chosen to find comfort in Lex those years ago, she had chosen to know Clark's secret, she had chosen to protect him and she had known the price was her childhood dream. But childhood dreams change. If she had to choose between knowing everything but keeping quiet or knowing nothing and shouting loudly she knows she would make the same choice again.

She looks out at the Gotham gloom and finishes her coffee. Her cellphone rings right on schedule, she doesn't have to look at the caller ID, she knows it's him. She cannot bring herself to speak to him yet, but in time she is sure she will forgive him, just like she has forgiven Clark.

She looks down at the article she turned in. Inoffensive and harmless. This doesn't bother her as much as it would have done only a few days ago. It is enough that she knows the truth and is in her own way trying to navigate between Clark and Lex, two sides of the same coin. She no longer needs the world to know that she knows. She tries to get away from Superman, from Clark, from Lex and it never works. She is always drawn back, like gravitational pull.

So maybe, she should stop resisting.

_Multi million dollar damage was done to the Metropolis Museum of Fine Art yesterday when an unknown substance was dropped from a helicopter into the main hall. It is unclear what this substance was but it is suspected that it was in someway intended to provoke Superman. The perpertrator is not known but unnamed sources suggest that LexCorp could be involved. Mr Luthor was unavailable for comment when approached. _

By Chloe Sullivan

**Fin**


End file.
